Blue Jays Offense (Ahem: Offence) Finally Starts to Worsen

Sometimes people make dumb predictions. If we had $5 for each silly prognostication we've dropped here at Walkoff Walk, we could afford our own expansion franchise in Oregon called the Portland IBUs who played in a stadium stocked to the brim with microbrews and hormone-free beef burgers topped with Tillamook cheddar cheese.

Earlier this year, I took a ton of abuse for questioning Roy Halladay's ability to win 20 games with a worsening Blue Jays offense, especially after Toronto shocked the world with a nearly perfect month of April that kept them atop the tough AL East. Well, don't be so fast to flip the fin into the failed forecasting fishbowl for this one yet: it ain't April anymore and the Jays' seven game sucking streak has me finally drinking from the cup of righteousness.

As recently as May 18th, the Bloojaze led the majors with 234 runs scored. After the seven game losing streak in which they've scored just eleven runs, they've been surpassed by four teams, including three in their own division. They're certainly getting their hits, but falling flat on their face in those certain situations that actually lead to winning games:

Toronto now is hitting just .138 (8-for-58) with runners in scoring position during the slide. The Blue Jays have also stranded 40 runners in scoring position while dropping seven straight.

"Nothing much you can do," (Cito) Gaston said. "You can juggle the lineup upside down if you want to. Some people [like to] switch the lineup around, but I'm not much for that. You've just got to keep grinding it out until something breaks, you catch a break or you make your own break."

Looks like the trouble is Vernon Wells. Fella finally had a run batted in yesterday but that was the sole run plated by the Jays against an otherwise stinkeroo Orioles team. Vernon has been having some trouble with his pull-hittin' ways:

Vernon Wells, the much maligned star of Sunday's loss, has exactly zero hits to the opposite field this year. Zero. Nil. On balls hit up the middle, his OPS is .533. That is some extreme shit.

Drew was pretty pragmatic about the Jays woes and presented some interesting stats about the team's cleanup hitter that might interest manager Cito Gaston. The fellas at Drunk Jays Fans, however, aren't taking the slump so well, accompanying their latest podcast with "I Know It's Over" by The Smiths and "End of the Line" by the Traveling Wilburys. Sounds like it's time for emo Geoff Baker to come back to Toronto

Oh Bobby, it could have been over. Us Jays' fans could have let your prediction go as a simple error in judgment. But now at the first sight of a slump you had to make a "I'm right!" post to keep this all going.

Obviously the Jays weren't going to keep going at the pace they were at but their offense won't be nearly as bad as last year, not even close. Now I'll have to keep giving you a hard time when they come back around and start scoring runs again.